put in Maskull carelessly.

Haunte drank, and laughed a little. "Well, the tale's short, and hardly
worth telling, but since you're interested.... A stranger came here five
years ago, inquiring after Muspel-light. His name was Lodd. He came from
the east. He came up to me one bright morning in summer, outside this
very cave. If you ask me to describe him--I can't imagine a second man
like him. He looked so proud, noble, superior, that I felt my own blood
to be dirty by comparison. You can guess I don't have this feeling for
everyone. Now that I am recalling him, he was not so much superior as
different. I was so impressed that I rose and talked to him standing. He
inquired the direction of the mountain Adage. He went on to say, 'They
say Muspel-light is sometimes seen there. What do you know of such a
thing?' I told him the truth--that I knew nothing about it, and then he
went on, 'Well, I am going to Adage. And tell those who come after me
on the same errand that they had better do the same thing.' That was the
whole conversation. He started on his way, and I've never seen him or
heard of him since."

"So you didn't have the curiosity to follow him?"

"No, because the moment he had turned his back all my interest in the
man somehow seemed to vanish."

"Probably because he was useless to you."

Corpang glanced at Maskull. "Our road is marked out for us."

"So it would appear," said Maskull indifferently.

The talk flagged for a time. Maskull felt the silence oppressive, and
grew restless.

"What do you call the colour of your skin, Haunte, as I saw it in
daylight? It struck me as strange."

"Dolm," said Haunte.

"A compound of ulfire and blue," explained Corpang.

"Now I know. These colours are puzzling for a stranger."

"What colours have you in your world?" asked Corpang.

"Only three primary ones, but here you seem to have five, though how it
comes about I can't imagine."

"There are two sets of three primary colours here," said Corpang, "but
as one of the colours--blue--is identical in both sets, altogether there
are five primary colours."

"Why two sets?"

"Produced by the two suns. Branchspell produces blue, yellow, and red;
Alppain, ulfire, blue, and jale."

"It's remarkable that explanation has never occurred to me before."

"So here you have another illustration of the necessary trinity
of nature. Blue is existence. It is darkness seen through light; a
contrasting of existence and nothing